Albany Assistance - Steer clear

melsee

Stay well away from Albany ... we have just had nearly a years fight through the FOS as 6 years after a claim was made we had a debt collector on the doorstep for a £10,000 debt from Albany for hire car charges in a non fault claim !
They have put us through hell ! Although its all dealt with lovely at the time , it is clear you need to watch your back years down the line when they decide to con people out of money !

JCJC777

Admiral tell me 94% of their users are pleased with or have no issues with Albany.
I am about to find out...

MoneySavingExpert there is a danger you over-worry people by only capturing negative comments; how could you get a more balanced view?

dacouch

JCJC777 wrote: »

Admiral tell me 94% of their users are pleased with or have no issues with Albany.
I am about to find out...

MoneySavingExpert there is a danger you over-worry people by only capturing negative comments; how could you get a more balanced view?

Have you tried googling Albany, there are many many different posts from disgruntled customers.

They genuinely are what we technically call "Not all that"

skivenov

JCJC777 wrote: »

Admiral tell me 94% of their users are pleased with or have no issues with Albany.
I am about to find out...

MoneySavingExpert there is a danger you over-worry people by only capturing negative comments; how could you get a more balanced view?

Interesting first post. Who do you work for?

My experience of Albany was pretty shocking.

I only got anywhere with them when I stole their hire van and told them to get their !!!! in gear as I do know a man by liverpool docks who buys new vans for export, no questions asked. :rotfl:

At one point they told me the cheque was being issued, so they were instructting the hire company to pick the van up today - stroll on I'm using it.

They told me I'd be charged for the excess hire, I told them good luck and cancelled my debit card.

Then they phoned me to tell me they were sending the hire company to pick it up immediately. I asked them where from. They told me my address. I wished them good luck, as I was working in Scotland all week.

Then when the cheque had cleared (after 2 weeks "in the post"... yeah right), they rang me and gave me a right load of attitude. I asked them who they thought they were talking to and they went off again.

At that point I told them to come and get the van, as they've told me I have no right to be using it, I'll leave it where it is. Have you heard of a part of Derby called Sinfin? It's on the news quite a bit. It's in Asda car park and the keys are on the seat.

:rotfl:

JCJC777

Thanks for your input. (I am retired and my only current paid role is a non-exec directorship in the NHS; I don't work for any of these companies.)

I have followed the advice and am going direct with the 3rd party insurer; Transportation Claims, underwritten by QBE, acting for Firstgroup, the bus company whose bus crashed into my parked car.



In case of interest, their Day 1 letter is below;

We act on behalf of FirstGroup plc as their claims handling agents.

Firstly we would like to offer our client’s sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused and hope all people involved are well. We appreciate this maybe a stressful and confusing time and we are sure you are receiving many similar letters. Our intention is to assist in any way we can whilst keeping your inconvenience and the cost of your claim to a minimum.


We would like to make contact with you to discuss arrangements for the repairs to be carried out to your vehicle, and to offer you a free replacement vehicle during the period of repairs.

Similarly, you may wish to proceed via your Insurer or for the repairs to be carried out by your preferred garage. This being the case, then we can still assist you by authorising the repairs directly to your chosen garage and/or providing you with a replacement vehicle whilst yours is off the road.

Acceptance of our offer will result in a replacement vehicle being provided to you immediately if your vehicle is not roadworthy, or to coincide with the vehicle being booked in at the repairer if it is still in use. All hire charges will be paid directly by us to the hire car provider. We confirm you will NOT be entering into any hire agreement or be responsible for the replacement car hire charges.
We are aware that you may have been offered an alternative hire vehicle either via your Insurers, or the repairing garage. It is important to note that such hire agreements may in fact be credit hire agreements, for which the terms and conditions may impose financial obligations upon you. In particular, and most importantly, that the hire charges are ultimately the responsibility of the hirer.

If this is the case; we assume that the credit hire company (such as Drive Assist, Helphire or Accident Exchange Ltd) has explained the terms and conditions to you and advised you that they have entered you into a credit hire agreement, which ultimately means you will be responsible for the charges incurred in the first instance. We are aware in certain circumstances hirers have been advised the third party insurer would cover all cost, but this is not always the case however.

Since all parties involved in an accident are legally bound to keep their losses to a minimum wherever possible, we would like to advise you of the amount we would pay for a hire car suitable for your needs in this case; so you may decide for yourself which is the more cost effective option regarding who can supply you a replacement vehicle.

The maximum daily rate at which we are able to supply a like-for-like F5 vehicle would be £79.00. This rate includes insurance and our VAT liabilities. An S2 group vehicle or similar would cost us no more than £20.00 per day inclusive of insurance and our VAT liabilities. Please note the daily cost is that which our supplier will charge us to provide you with the car. We will not seek to ask you to enter into any credit agreement or bear the cost for the reasonable hire yourself.

Please see attached our full list of hire rates so you may decide whether to accept one from ourselves. Please be aware all rates listed are inclusive of our VAT liabilities.
If you have received a hire car from elsewhere and are happy with the terms you have entered into, we will await the claim in due course. However, we would ask that you read the terms and conditions very carefully and always keep losses to a minimum. Having read your credit hire agreement, should you be unhappy hiring a vehicle with this associated risk, then please contact 0118 903 5400 or email fru@firstgroup.com and quote the reference at the top of this letter. We will then arrange a suitable free hire vehicle for you immediately and pay the invoice directly to the hire car provider. We confirm you will not be entered into any hire agreement or be responsible for the courtesy car charges.

If you are unsure of the contents of this letter and/or our offer, please contact your agent or insurer for advice. We are also happy to discuss any concerns or queries you may have.

We look forward to hearing from you. If we can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact the above office or your dedicated case handler.

loopdaloop

JCJC777 wrote: »

Admiral tell me 94% of their users are pleased with or have no issues with Albany.
I am about to find out...

MoneySavingExpert there is a danger you over-worry people by only capturing negative comments; how could you get a more balanced view?

Forthy-nine percent of statistics are made up.
Of what proportion of users did they question?
Admiral never asked me how I found albany. (i.e. terrible, disorganised, dodgy)

Its good that you have had a better experience else where.

VinnieJ

It still staggers me to read all the credit hire bashing on this website and how insurance companies are made out to be knights in shining armour!Unfortunately, you are (very) misguided.

Yes I am sure Albany/Helphire, Accident Exchange and the likes get it wrong from time to time and let people down but it's a very complex industry and they have to jump through many legal hoops to ensure they get paid but this is not of their choosing, so please allow me to give a brief history of how credit hire came about.

Pre 1990's insurance companies did not offer courtesy cars, if you were the victim of a non fault road accident, you were not offered a courtesy vehicle, if you needed a replacement car, you had to hire it yourself and then invoice the at fault insurer. One day a lawyer was involved in a non fault accident and needed a replacement vehicle, so he hired a car and pursued the cost from the other sides insurer. Luckily he was in a position where he could afford to pay up front for the hire car and had the knowledge and the ability to claim this back. This led him to think, what about Joe Public, they are being let down by the insurance industry and are not receiving what they are legally entitled too. Like all good entrepreneurs, he had identified a gap in the market and credit hire was born.

To all those complaining about the hassle and signing credit hire agreements that make you responsible for the hire costs, yes I agree with you it shouldn't be necessary. However, as you may imagine insurance companies are not happy to pay for hire car costs when they weren't paying for them before 1990, so they tried every legal argument they could to try and eradicate credit hire and deny people their legal rights and the endless paperwork you are asked to sign and the questions you have to answer have all been born out of many court, court of appeals and high court decisions.

The insurance replacement vehicle industry is a mess, the two sides need to find a way of working together to give customers the easiest and hassle free way of hiring a replacement vehicle if its needed following an accident.

To those people who think going direct to the at fault insurer is the best option, just remember that the less they pay out on your claim the more profit they make. Never forget that.

sithemadmonkey

VinnieJ wrote: »

The insurance replacement vehicle industry is a mess, the two sides need to find a way of working together to give customers the easiest and hassle free way of hiring a replacement vehicle if its needed following an accident.

Insurers/CHOs have tried this before - the General Terms of Agreement (GTA), which is a voluntary code laying out hire costs, timescales and recoverable charges. Unfortunately, it hasn't stopped a lot of p*ss taking on both sides, and of course is only voluntary so won't solve the problem of rogue agents. The Competition Commission is coming towards the end of their investigation, and they seem to be leaning towards giving at-fault insurers first crack of the whip when offering hire cars, but still preserving a customer's right to go elsewhere if they wish.

To those people who think going direct to the at fault insurer is the best option, just remember that the less they pay out on your claim the more profit they make. Never forget that.

Which is why they will usually fall over themselves to offer a similar benefit to the Credit Hire option, but at a greatly reduced cost. I'm not saying that no insurers go too far the other way (because some do), but surely it's in the insurer's interest to give you a good service - if they mess about with you (not giving you what you're entitled to or being difficult over hire periods or CDWs) then surely you will just go to a credit hire company and their costs will skyrocket.

VinnieJ

sithemadmonkey wrote: »

Which is why they will usually fall over themselves to offer a similar benefit to the Credit Hire option, but at a greatly reduced cost. I'm not saying that no insurers go too far the other way (because some do), but surely it's in the insurer's interest to give you a good service - if they mess about with you (not giving you what you're entitled to or being difficult over hire periods or CDWs) then surely you will just go to a credit hire company and their costs will skyrocket.

Yes they may well fall over to supply you with a car at the beginning because as you say they will get it at a much reduced cost. However once they have you in their car, it will be in their interest to snatch it away as quickly as possible to save money.

If you also let them manage the repair/total loss, they will take short cuts here too to achieve lower costs, as the competition commission have learnt.

Quentin

VinnieJ wrote: »

.......If you also let them manage the repair/total loss, they will take short cuts here too to achieve lower costs, as the competition commission have learnt.

If you hand over the management of your claim to the third party you are asking for problems.

The obvious one is having to ultimately use the courts to get any problem solved as the FOS wouldn't be interested.

You don't have to fall in with their proposals for which repairer to use and can insist on using your own choice, though they won't volunteer this option!

Unless you are assertive they will push you to their repairer, but will still be happy to deal with your claim on your terms rather than see you appoint your own claim handler once you insist!